Today again Jesus comes to stand in our midst. He passes through the locked doors of our hearts — the doors that we lock to keep others away from us. To keep God at a distance.

Jesus knows that like those first disciples, sometimes we are afraid of what God is calling us to do; sometimes we are afraid to go out and encounter the pain of our neighbors, their loneliness and their need for God.

But Jesus will not leave us alone. He does not allow us to lock ourselves away from the world. So, he comes again and again into our lives.

In the Gospel today, he comes to his disciples and he shows them hishands and his side.

The wounds of the risen Christ tell a story. When we look at his hands and his side, we see the story of how much God loves us — so much that he suffers and dies for us.

In his wounds we see that we have been forgiven and healed, our guilt washed away!

This is why the disciples rejoice in the Gospel today. And this is why we should rejoice, too. Our life should be a life of joy! Every day. Because we have seen the Lord! We have seen how much he loves us!

Jesus has risen from the dead so that we can live with him. And he breathes his Spirit into us at Baptism and calls us to go out and follow him into the world, to complete his mission of love.

We hear his words again today:

Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. …Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.

Of course, we understand that Jesus here is giving his priests and his Church the power to forgive sins in his name.

But he is also speaking to every one of us. We have all received the Holy Spirit. We are baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Jesus said: “I came to set the earth on fire and I wish fire was already burning!”2 And he gives this mission to us. To spread the fire of Pentecost, to set this world on fire with the love of God.

And, my brothers and sisters, we know that the world is waiting for that fire of love.

We see this all around us. So much violence and chaos. Everywhere, we see anger and division. Just this week — another shooting in a school, in Santa Fe, Texas; children killed for no reason.

Then, in the land where Jesus was born, people are being kills this week not far from the upper room where the apostles waited for the Spirit.

Jesus is sending you and me out into this world, to carry the gift of his Spirit, to renew the face of the earth. He is calling us to be peace-makers and bridge-builders, to open every heart that is hardened by indifference.

We need to reach out to those who are suffering, those who are excluded. No matter what language we speak or where we come from.

The Spirit makes us one, as St. Paul says in that second reading today. One heart, one love, one life!

Jesus is sending us into the world to spread the fire of his love wherever we go. In our conversations at home and at work. Even on the internet or on social media.

In fact, the social media is one place we can all make a difference. Facebook and Twitter and all the rest. When we use these media, let’s try to bring people together, try to be a voice of understanding.

Like those first disciples, we need to open people’s hearts to the love of God. We need to speak to them of the great things that God can do in their lives.

The mission of Pentecost, the mission of the Spirit, continues today — in your life and my life.

Let us ask our Mother Mary to pray for all us and to pray for the Church. May she help us to know that Spirit is alive in our hearts and help us to spread the fire of his love to the ends of the earth.